Dell Dimension 2400 Will not boot. Does not detect HDD or DVD RW drives..

[Raptor]

Might be a bad PSU too, as I mentioned earlier on.

[milmat1]

RAPTOR,   You might be close !!

While experimenting here I found that: Still With Old HDD !

1, With Everything connected as per original config :
   Post shows
   Primary Drive 0  Not Found
   Primary Drive 1  Not Found
   Secondary Drive 0 Not Found
   Secondary Drive 1 Not Found
   
Press F1 to CONTINUE  or F2 to enter setup.
 
PRESSING  F1  it Loops back to same error !!!

NOW
2, Leaving everything connected as original config ( Same as Above)  EXCEPT: Dissconnect Power Cable (4 cond.)from CD drive

Post Shows ( same)
 Primary drive 0  Not Found
 Primary Drive 1  Not Found
 Secondary drive 0 Not Found
 Secondary drive 1 Not Found
Press F1 to Continue or F2 to enter setup..
HOWEVER  NOW:Pressing F1  MACHINE BOOTS TO WINDOWS !!


What the heck is happening??  The CD drive corrupting the Power    Causing all the starnge test results with this machine ??

[Raptor]

If an IDE device is wonky, it could prevent all the other drives from being given any attention.

Obviously, some of your IDE drives aren't in order. Have you diagnosed your hard drive yet with Hard Disk Sentinel?

You could also hook up a multimeter to the PSU and see what voltages come out of the yellow and red. It's not much of a test but if the voltages are way above tresholds, it could indicate a faulty PSU that's been wrecking controllers.

[milmat1]

If an IDE device is wonky, it could prevent all the other drives from being given any attention.

Obviously, some of your IDE drives aren't in order. Have you diagnosed your hard drive yet with Hard Disk Sentinel?

You could also hook up a multimeter to the PSU and see what voltages come out of the yellow and red. It's not much of a test but if the voltages are way above tresholds, it could indicate a faulty PSU that's been wrecking controllers.

With everything connected I have measured the DC voltage at one of the Unused Drive power connectors, 11.97 and 4.99 VDC Reff to ground.

Once I got it booted I booted to utility partition and ran all the hdd test. Read,Seek,Smart,Confidence etc on the HDD and everything passed, Also ran the test on Memory and processor and everything passes...I am pretty lost at this point...

I am thankfull that it will boot now even with the added steps because I retrieved all the files I figured were gone forever....

"some of your IDE drives aren't in order"  I don't underst and this comletely but they are back to original connections. The drive that has the problem (CD DRIVE) is connected in the middle pos of the cable from the secondary, Then the DVD dric=ve is at the last pos of that cable. And it is a Cable Select cable and drives are set to C-SEL.......

 The HDD is connected by a single 80 cond cable to the primary port...

Is there anything I can do to "Delete" the CD drive so it doesnt look for it at all     //


I wanted this to be a learning experience and It sure has been .......sheeeew  !

[Raptor]

With everything connected I have measured the DC voltage at one of the Unused Drive power connectors, 11.97 and 4.99 VDC Reff to ground.

Very neat values.

"some of your IDE drives aren't in order"  I don't underst and this comletely but they are back to original connections. The drive that has the problem (CD DRIVE) is connected in the middle pos of the cable from the secondary, Then the DVD dric=ve is at the last pos of that cable. And it is a Cable Select cable and drives are set to C-SEL.......

Is there anything I can do to "Delete" the CD drive so it doesnt look for it at all     //

Is the CD-ROM drive still giving you problems? Why not just leave it out, then? You already have a DVD-drive.

I'd use master/slave instead of cable select although some mainboards prefer the latter.

[milmat1]

Is the CD-ROM drive still giving you problems? Why not just leave it out, then? You already have a DVD-drive.

Only in that I am trying to understand why it stills gives the POST error of not finding the drives etc Which adds the extra step of booting up. (Having to hit F1 to continue".)..I thought that might be because it is still looking for that drive that is dissconnected...And I mistaken on that ?  Or is that simply due to the cable arrangment still being C-SEL maybe ?

[Raptor]

So all the devices work under Windows but the BIOS still tells you that it can not find the devices?

Did you take some of the devices off "Auto" configuration in the BIOS? Is the hard drive manually configured?

[milmat1]

So all the devices work under Windows but the BIOS still tells you that it can not find the devices?

Did you take some of the devices off "Auto" configuration in the BIOS? Is the hard drive manually configured?

I am such an idiot ( I warned ya'll about that!).....

I went to the BIOS and set the missing drive from Auto to OFF !!  Now it is running normal and booting correctly, I am just minus the one optical drive (No Biggie!)........

This has been a great learning experience and I cannot thank you all enough for hanging in there with me !!

And a Special Thanks to you RAPTOR !! 


I am sure to create more consufion as I study learn and ask stupid questions. But I am really glad to find this site and a great group of people !!!

[Raptor]

Good job.